<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>got what i need, tangerine by sxndazed</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26556394">got what i need, tangerine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sxndazed/pseuds/sxndazed'>sxndazed</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Introspection, M/M, POV Kageyama Tobio</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:00:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>828</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26556394</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sxndazed/pseuds/sxndazed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tobio finds home in the form of a person.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>got what i need, tangerine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>for <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/kageyamz/pseuds/kageyamz">kageyamz</a><br/>happy birthday &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tobio grows up knowing that home is a place.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's the way his grandfather makes sure he knows all of the possible ways to get to the gym from the house.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's the way his runs are all some variation of a route from the starting point of their front door.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's the way he passes by Miwa's room and flops onto his bed when he's back from school, boneless and relaxed.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Home is a place, a house that holds him, his belongings, and the people in his life.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He knows home is a place. Why wouldn't it be?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tobio starts to wonder if maybe he's got it all wrong.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Home is a place, isn't it?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>That's what he grew up believing, knowing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So if home is a place, then why doesn't his apartment feel like home?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Maybe the walls are too bare.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Maybe the whole place is too bare.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He ends up with plants on the windowsill (his first one courtesy of Ushijima, who is actually quite fond of them) and photos in his room. They breathe life into his place, but it's not entirely right.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's better, but it's still not quite there.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He gets close when he makes curry one night.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's not quite like his grandfather's, but it's rich and warm and filling.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's good, he thinks.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When he goes to bed that night, he thinks about home.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Maybe home is a place, but the first place.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The place where you grow, where you spend your years being taken care of, where you see those you love with the frequency that adulthood prevents you from having.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tobio thinks home is in Miyagi. A place, maybe, but it's the memories, he thinks.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's over a year later, and Tobio's got it all wrong. He knows that now.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Home is not a place. His apartment is no longer as bare. His plant collection has grown (a miracle since he forgets to water them often) and the pictures fill his room. There's art on the walls (courtesy of Miwa) and books on health and wellness that he's collected over the years.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>His apartment is filled, but it's not home.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's not home, but neither is the house he grew up in, in Miyagi.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Instead of a place, Tobio finds home in the form of a person.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He finds it in the colour orange, bright and gleaming in the sun and warm and ethereal in the moon. It's in eyes that shift from annoyed to <em> fond </em> and hair that spills gorgeously across navy blue sheets and forces him to pay attention.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He finds it in the laugh that escapes his mouth, light and ringing, that calls a smile to his lips. Tobio maintains the idea that this laugh is coming from an idiot, but he's mesmerised by it, so who's really the idiot? (It's still not him, but the glint in those orange eyes want to say otherwise.)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He finds it in tanned skin kissed golden from the sun and calloused hands that hold him tenderly and with care. It's in the way they run down his sides and the way they brush through Tobio's hair that leaves him feeling sleepy and content.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He finds it in the way they match one another, their passions pushing and pulling and bringing them together without fail, moment after moment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He finds it months later, when he slides a copy of his key across the table and he's smiling into a kiss.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tobio thinks about his grandfather, about finding someone strong enough to meet across the net, beside it even. He finds himself consumed by orange that never dims, that glows bright, glows brighter until he's drawn in and left helpless.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tobio thinks about the plants that join his place and the increase in pictures found on the tables, the shelves, and the walls. He thinks about the yogurt drinks that are always stocked in the fridge that he doesn't buy and the extra toothbrush in a cup on the other side of the sink.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tobio thinks about being a child, about growing up thinking, knowing, that home is a place.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tobio thinks about Hinata Shouyou, about the different brand of protein powder he keeps in the cabinet because it somehow tastes better and the mug that sits beside his on the counter. He thinks about the apartment he moved into several years ago that now houses the both of them. He thinks about how they made this a home, a place for them together.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Home is a place until it isn't. It isn't when Shouyou is out running an errand or visiting a friend. It isn't when Tobio unlocks the door and doesn't hear humming coming from the bathroom or rummaging from the kitchen.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It isn't until Shouyou is there.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So home isn't a place, not like how he grew up knowing, believing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's the people.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's a person.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And when Tobio looks at Shouyou, he finds himself at home.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>